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Media Overview

Media Report - Television

2007 may prove to be a significant year for the local television market. For the first time since aggregation NBN has come under threat as the dominant station. It has taken a while for the national trends to filter though to the Hunter but in 2007 Prime has made serious inroads into NBN’s ratings. This has been most apparent when broken down by demographics rather than overall figures.

Southern Cross TEN have also been getting runs on the board in the second half of the year following a poor start to 2007 and have some good programming building for 2008. We expect SC TEN to maintain their current momentum over the Summer and into next year.

NBN is still No.1. They have yet to lose a ratings week outside of Olympic Games, however the gap has closed significantly since the end of the football season with Prime finishing only 0.4% and 0.5 % and 1.8% behind NBN in last three weeks.

NBN’s problem has been the lack of product coming through from Nine (who have suffered even more nationally). Their US supply deals have not delivered the hot programs that Seven (Prime) and to a lesser extent TEN have enjoyed. NBN’s programming has continually skewed to older demographics in lieu of any hot new series.

Of course, sport and news have proven to be a source of ratings success for NBN, however they are expensive advertising propositions and must be right for your target demographics.

In 2008 we anticipate a strong battle for the No.1 spot between NBN and Prime. Rugby League will continue to deliver for NBN and should see them win the year, however we predict Prime will start winning ratings weeks next year. We also expect that SC TEN will continue to improve and be a much stronger third place overall.

The real story will be in key demographics. Media buyers have been moving dollars around the market to chase target audiences much more this year and lazy buying is no longer rewarded due to the fickle habits of viewers. (See our ratings reports for more detail).

Radio

The Newcastle radio market has a serious problem. The Bill Caralis owned stations NEWFM and 2HD are under-funded, under-staffed and poorly managed. As a result they have been floundering in the ratings and rapidly losing market share while NXFM and KOFM continue to dominate the market in ratings and advertising dollars.

The final survey of 2007 did see 2HD enjoy a better result and KOFM experience a sharp drop, however the longer term trends still favour ongoing KO/NX success. 2HD's only real growth area in recent years has been in 55+ years where a higher Time Spent Listening inflates their ratings share. KOFM still has 53000 more listeners than 2HD, the bulk of them between 25 and 54 years.

The damage will be widespread if this continues. Lack of competition leads to lazy programming by all parties. Why try harder when you win so easily doing what you are doing? The listeners end up with an inferior product, the advertisers are left with dwindling choices and rising prices by the dominant player, and the industry begins to lose its relevancy.

Currently it is very difficult to recommend advertising on 2HD and NEWFM, even with their ridiculously low rates. Conversely NXFM and KOFM have become more expensive due to the tide of radio advertisers coming their way. This has made them a much less attractive buying proposition due to decreasing cost-effectiveness.

Lets hope Caralis opens the purse strings at Sandgate and begins to put up a semblance of a fight so that advertisers have more real choice.

Press

Very little changes in press in the Hunter. The Newcastle Herald / Post continues to be the main choice for advertisers. The Maitland Mercury and Star newspapers offer some alternative but are dwarfed by the Herald.

Fairfax Media (owners of the Newcastle Herald) have built a strong online presence around Australia offering readers up-to-the-minute news and views but this has not happened in Newcastle where the Herald’s site is basic. A strong Herald online presence would be a welcome opportunity for advertisers, however at this stage it seems like an unlikely development.